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4/21/2010

Capistrano Teacher Strike Tomorrow

Teachers Strike Thursday
Call out the National Guard

My children are riled up. I am mad and sad about how District treated the Teachers and the students. This is going to happen not just in California but Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Illinois, Michigan…
We will all pay.

I say to my children, “keep your eye on the ball, you have your studies and sports just block your ears to the drama and march on.”

I don’t want my children to loose faith in our system. They need to find solutions for their generation and I pray they just may be stronger than you and I...

I found myself choking up when I spoke to teachers yesterday morning standing in front of Niguel Hills Middle School with my sign. Yes I was on the picket line. I’m not a Teacher. I did cry later in my car. My sign isn’t about TRUSTees or RECALL its pragmatic and a plan. My white cardboard : SELL THE TAJ MAHAL. We as citizens not must tell all our Districts, all our representatives we have had enough.

A good General does not take away food and shoes from the soldier on the front line.

The great State of California is near bankrupt. California is broken. We have pushed taxed, legislated away and restricted business so much they left. Hypomesus transpacificus (a little fish) caused a new Dust Bowl in Central California. I know the Sacramento smelt is endangered but let's see the real picture. Now a number of other birds, animals, and fish will die because all the top soil is blowing away and the marsh lands are cracked bone dry.

Get real. Bureaucracy must be cut in size, dollar amount and endless legal foolishness. Citizens must be willing to volunteer and go without. I tire of “special interest groups.” A vague phrase but it means someone thinks they are special and deserve a separate kingdom deal.

A few years ago I followed Dr. Fleming dropping off his grandchildren at Crown Valley (my son’s same school)

I asked our then Superintendant of Capistrano School District, “Why do we need such a large building for 250 employees?”

“Because they deserve a nice workplace.”

The word: DESERVE, it rang in my head like a marble in a goldfish bowl... or smelt bowl perhaps I ought to be farming them. The gesture with palm out, give me something great because I am entitled attitude.

The old District offices (years later are still occupied by the District and never were sold or sublet i.e.: WASTE) weren’t in a gorgeous location. The buildings were adequate not great. The District offices had citronella eucalyptus trees that smelled of lemons when the bows gently moved in the wind. The wash behind the structures was pretty in the spring with wildflowers and smooth stones . I run that path down to the beach. The buildings were older and industrial looking but at the time they were fine.

I am certain it is the same in every District. There is fat. The pay scale of a secretary starting at $ 67000.00 is wrong. The teacher on the front line start pay is much less. There is some secret revolving door in the District where a burn out is put in Administration

California has massive waste in the duplication of Districts. We have local city funded schools (the rich ones) and state funded schools (now the poor ones) and Charters and special interest ones also state funded and a and a. Eight hundred Districts need to merge into one hundred. Many administrators will be fired. It will be painful. I do not see a leader strong enough to get all the special interest whining out of the way and cut the blubber.

It is far easier for a District to cut the health benefits and pay of the soldier/the teacher on the front line.Weak leaders do it. I fear the teachers will not be able to make an impact with a three day strike. They can’t go long because they don’t have huge savings. Teachers are generally not the type to be aggressive and strategic. If the strike goes long the District will find a way to fire all the rabble rousers and hire cheaper new faces out of the what 15% unemployed in California